Judy Pearson is a best-selling author, an accomplished presenter, and a graduate of Michigan State University. But her favorite title is “story teller.” With five books and millions of published words to her credit, she’s also a fan of history and intrigued by what motivates unsung heroes and heroines to act so selflessly.
Judy was named one of Chicago’s Most Inspirational Women, a Top Phoenix Woman to Know, a Warrior with Hope and a Phoenix Healthcare Hero. Judy and her husband live in Nokomis, FL, loving life and making one another laugh every day. Learn more about her and her books at JudithLPearson.com .
1. How and when did you get hooked on history?
My dad was a WWII pilot. And he also loved the “olden days of the wild west.” Consequently, television shows with those themes were a constant in our house. And he loved to regale me (and later my two sons) with extra tidbits about whatever he was watching.
2. What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?
Fast forward to my college years. I was a French major at Michigan State, was fluent in the language and spent a year at a university in Rennes, France. I enrolled in literature and history classes with the other French students, and spent every weekend possible visiting historical places in the country.
3. How does history play a part of your professional life/career?
Although I began my writing life wanting to be a novelist, when I uncovered the documents that led to my first published biography, Belly of the Beast, I was able to secure a top agent in NYC. His advice then still serves me well: there are lots of novelists, but if you become an expert in a time period, you’ll develop a following. And I’m fortunate to have done that.
4. Why is studying/knowing history important?
The classic reason is that studying history helps us repeating our mistakes. That’s true to a certain extent. But I have another favorite reason: the past is prologue. It’s etched into the brick facade of the National Archives building in Washington, D.C. (one of my favorite and frequent haunts). Everything we do today, personally and as a nation, is driven by our experiences in the past. Like a book’s prologue, it’s what drives our future.
5. What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?
Oh man, that’s like asking me to name my favorite child! I began my career immersed in WWII. And that’s still a favorite. But my last two books and my current project are primarily set in the 1960s and 1970s. From a business standpoint, that’s a good era as baby boomers remember it and are prodigious readers.
6. You’ve said that you write “stories that inspire” about “unsung heroes”. How do you discover subjects for your books and what are the common threads that run through your subjects?
It seems that my subjects find me. Some have unexpectedly turned up, as in the case of my first two biographies. The last two and my current project are part of a trilogy I’m writing completely out of order. Research for one led to the next and then the next. But the common thread is courage. We know about Amelia Earhart, George Patton, and Abigail Adams. But Estel Myers, Virginia Hall, Susie Leigh and Mary Lasker aren’t familiar names. And yet the courage of each changed the lives of millions.
7. Please tell us about your most recent book and, if you want to share, your next project(s)?
Crusade to Heal America: The Remarkable Life of Mary Lasker came out in September, 2023. She was a wealthy socialite, but spent every waking hour lobbying Congress for medical research funding. It’s because of Mary that the National Institutes of Health is plural and that President Richard Nixon signed the 1971 National Cancer Act.
From that research (and research for the previous book, From Shadows to Life: A Biography of the Cancer Survivorship Movement) I learned about the three women in my current project. With a working title of Radical Sisters, it’s the story of how Shirley Temple Black, Rose Kushner and Evelyn Lauder used their breast cancer diagnoses to further the women’s health revolution of the 1970s, 80s and 90s. The target publication date is spring 2025.
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